Mr. Merrick, who had tested these girls in more ways than one, was watching them carefully, and fully approved their spirit and courage under such trying conditions.  Major Doyle, Patsy’s father, when the first copy of the Millville Tribune was laid on his desk in the city, was astounded at the audacity of this rash venture.  When he could command his temper to write calmly he sent a letter to Mr. Merrick which read:  “Taken altogether, John, you’re the craziest bunch of irresponsibles outside an asylum.  No wonder you kept this folly a secret from me until you had accomplished your nefarious designs.  The Millville Daily Tribune is a corker and no mistake, for our Patsy’s at the head of your lunatic gang.  I’ll go farther, and say the paper’s a wonder.  I believe it is the first daily newspaper published in a town of six inhabitants, that has ever carried the Associated Press dispatches, But, allow me to ask, why?  The lonely inhabitants of the desert of Chazy County don’t need a daily—­or a weekly—­or a monthly.  A semi-annual would about hit their gait, and be more than they deserve.  So I’ve decided it’s merely a silly way to spend money—­and an easy way, too, I’ll be bound.  Oblige me by explaining this incomprehensible eccentricity.”

To this, a mild protest for the major, Uncle John replied:  “Dear Major Doyle:  Yours received.  Have you no business of your own to attend to?  Affectionately yours, John Merrick.”

The major took the hint.  He made no further complaint but read the paper religiously every day, gloating over Patsy’s name as managing editor and preserving the files with great care.  He really enjoyed, the Millville Tribune, and as his summer vacation was shortly due he anticipated with pleasure a visit to the farm and a peep at the workings of “our Patsy’s” famous newspaper.  The other girls he ignored.  If Patsy was connected with the thing, her adoring parent was quite sure she was responsible for all the good there was in it.

The paper printed no mention of the famous duel.  But Hetty made a cartoon of it, showing the lane, with its fringe of spectators, Arthur Weldon standing manfully to await his antagonist and big Bill Sizer, in the distance, sprinting across the fields in the direction of home.  This cartoon was highly prized by those who had witnessed the adventure and Peggy McNutt pinned it on the wall of his real estate office beside the one Hetty had made of himself.  Bill Sizer promptly “stopped the paper,” that being the only vengeance at hand, and when Bob West sent a boy to him demanding the return of the pistol, Bill dispatched with the weapon the following characteristic note, which he had penned with much labor: 

“Bob west sir you Beet me out uv my Reeveng and Made me look like a bag uv Beens. but I will skware this Thing sum da and yu and that edyter hed better Watch out. i don’t stand fer no Throwdown like that Wm. Sizer.”